Customer Reviews

Le Jour Se Leve [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There is always more beneath the surface of a Marcel Carne film. It's all in the details such as the shots of a one-eared teddy bear in the attic reflecting the hurt of the man about to be terrorized by the police. This movie - a precursor of film noir - begins almost at the end when an honest laborer, beaten down by the system, kills another man out of passion and has to hide in an attic until the police finally break down the door..at daybreak. (French law provided that the police could not enter until dawn). The story of the events leading to this dark ending is told in flashback. There is an eerie sense of dread everywhere. For example the hero (or shall I say anti-hero) works as a sandblaster in a factory and when he works, he is sealed in a cold suit of metal...all the while dark, demonic shadows abound or sulfurous fumes escape. In the same scene, a flower girl arrives but loses the freshness of her plants because of the smoke.

Made in 1939, the film is also a warning to France which was on the eve of war with Fascist Germany and itself holed itself up - in isolation - until the inevitable disaster. (The Vichy government which collaborated with the Nazis forbade the showing of the film0.

As in so many of the great Marcel Carne films, the director is obsessed with doomed love. In those dark, edgy days leading up to the war, it must have seemed to Marcel Carne that happiness, while precious, is short lived - always on the verge of being snuffed out callously.

I cannot fault the pitch perfect, sad performance of Jean Gabin. Watch his eyes as he awaits his inevitable doom. Gabin - as Francois - portrays a sympathetic, bruised man. He loves an orphan perhaps because he himself was an orphan.

Of all Marcel Carne films, "Le Jour se Leve" is his most compelling metaphor for the impending disaster awaiting France. Poetic realism indeed.

A very bleak but marvelous film. Jean Gabin is always watchable but this is a fantastic performance, beautiful and tragic. My one problem with this particular copy of the film is that the quality is not great and the subtitles do not translate every line, or even every other line. It has inspired me to brush up on my French, but when you buy a film with subtitles you expect at least most of the dialogue to be subtitled. A real shame.

In 1952, "Sight and Sound" presented their first Top Ten poll of the best movies of all time. Coming in a tie for 7th place was "Le Jour se Leve". As the 20th Century drew to a close, movie fans were given a treat in the form of the book "The New York Times Guide to the 1000 Best Movies ever Made". The book omitted movies from the silent era but was quite receptive to foreign-language films. Yet the book did not list "Le Jour se Leve" as one of it's top 1000 films. How does a movie go from top 10 to missing inclusion in the top 1000? Perhaps "Le Jour se Leve" cam claim the title of being, simultaneously, the most over-rated and under-rated movie of all time. Personally, I liked the movie when I saw it last night but I debated about giving it a 5 Star rating.

"Le Jour se Leve" is the story of a murder that strips away any semblance of suspense by giving the audience the victim and the murderer in the opening scene. It doesn't take much longer to clarify the motive as well. The movie's greatness is telling a love story within the context of our knowing its' extreme outcome from the start. This approach gives the audience a unique focus on each and every step of the developing romances as the films goes through a number of flashbacks. The main character is an easy-going laborer who stumbles into a relationship with a young woman. There is another man and that leads to another woman all of which we pickup on in successive flashbacks. There are a couple of minor twists that we don't see coming but the movie is very up-front with the plot.

"Le Jour se Leve" emerges into an intense romantic drama that develops the main characters in a method of excellance that was the likely reason for its' "Sight and Sound" Top Ten rating. The characters are of varying complexity and the talented cast, led by Jean Gabin, is outstanding. The direction by Marcel Carne is the key to the whole film. I could not recall a scene that didn't add to the movie's impact. This movie suffers from the key to its' own success; its' predictability. Once I understood that, I was able to appreciate its' excellence but I can't fault anyone who thought otherwise. "Le Jour se Leve" doesn't make my Top Ten but it certainly makes the top 1000 with plenty of room to spare.

In the late '30s and early '40s, the films of Marcel Carné gave eloquent voice to a mood of fatalistic, romantic pessimism... After the war, however, his career was a sad shadow of its former self...

Central to Carné and Prévert's conception of doomed love was Jean Gabin's proletarian antihero, trapped in darkened rooms and foggy streets while awaiting retribution for crimes he barely knew he might commit: in "Quai des Brumes," Gabin's deserter comes violently up against local gangsters in a battle over the girl with whom he has fallen suddenly, passionately in love; in "Le jour se Léve," surrounded by police but unable to contemplate surrender, he recalls the events leading to his shooting of a girlfriend's seducer...

Widely described as poetic realism, Carné's style is in fact anything but realist; the squalor, shadows, and smoky bars all externalize the hero's melancholy resignation to an unjust Destiny... Without Carné's expert control of atmosphere, the effect might seem merely picturesque, for rarely have solitude, alienation and death been imbued with such elegance and beauty...

As I watch the films of Marcel Carne I sit there and I'm amazed. How could someone be so blessed with talent? How do some people become so fortunate?

Carne is without question one of the greatest filmmakers that ever lived. I've only seen a small handful of his films, but, I don't need to see that much to recognize his genuis. Both of his films "Children of Paradise" and "Port of Shadows" rank among my all time favorite films. And "Daybreak" is just as good.

"Daybreak" actually has something in common with "Children of Paradise". Both films are anti-war parables. In fact, I think "Daybreak" does a better job of presenting its views.

Francois (Jean Gabin) has just killed a man, Valentin (Jules Berry) in a crime of passion. Both men were in love with Francoise (Jacqueline Laurent). The film then takes place in flashbacks as we see how Francois and Francoise meet and eventually fall in love. We also learn how Francois and Valentine meet and what leads to Valentine's ultimate faith.

After killing the man Francois locks himself in his room so the police cannot get him. He has now isolated himself from the world. At this point I should point out the film was made in 1939. World War 2 was on the horizon. Supposedly this film was released before the war started, but, people of Europe knew war was on the way.

When we look at the film from this context "Daybreak" is more than a story of doomed love. The film argues evil is on the way and in a world filled with hate and violence there is no room for love. And without love, we cannot survive. Lets also remember America did not enter the war at the beginning. Does Francois' action of isolationism reflect this country's stance on the war?

The movie was based on a story by Jacques Viot and written by Jacques Prevent, who also worked on "Children of Paradise". Prevent and Carne were quite a team. Their work together dwells deep into the conscience of the times. These films; "Port of Shadows", "Children of Paradise" and this film, are making social arguments in the most subtle of way but by the time the film is over, the effect is not only powerful but lasting.

Marcel Carne's films seem to be difficult to find in this country. I'm going to search though. With three movies he has turned me into a strong, devoted fan of his work. If you haven't seen any of his films I strongly suggest you do. And it doesn't matter where you start. Watch whatever you can find from him. In the end you'll realize, as I have, Carne is a master.

Bottom-line: A strong anti-war film that deserves to be compared to Carne's "Children of Paradise". Both films dwell deep into the public's conscience of the world around them. A powerful film!

Sharp and intense, `Le Jour se Leve' is a magnificent film from one of the very best years in cinema; 1939. Staring the impressive Jean Gabin, the film centers around a man who has just committed a murder. Locked in his apartment, this man (named Francois) contemplates the events that led him to such an act and the people he met along the way. Gabin is sensational as Francois. He had such an impressive look (he was very handsome and commanding in his presence), and Gabin was able to use his statuesque features to create an aura that consumed the audience. He does so here as well, perfectly embodying the emotional complexities that slowly layer themselves upon Francois. The script is tightly woven and delivers the intended chills and thrills and leaves the audience with an emotionally charged finale that will rest on your minds for some time after the close of the film. Outside of the obvious plot point (the murder), there is intense character development here, beautifully composing people who are searching for fulfillment in places that elude them. French cinema is certainly some of the best out there, and `Le Jour se Leve' is further proof to that claim!

"Le Jour Se Leve," ("Daybreak") (1939), a bleak black and white crime drama, romance/thriller, is considered one of the great classics of the French cinema. It was directed by the legendary Marcel Carne Children of Paradise ( Les Enfants du paradis ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Australia ]]] ); the original story was by the respected Jacques Viot; the script, by Jacques Prevert, with whom the greatest of French directors often worked.

It stars the incomparable Jean Gabin (Grand Illusion - Criterion Collection) as foundry worker Francois, who kills the sleazy, sadistic, womanizing dog act performer Valentin (Jules Berry) to help the young florist he loves, Francoise, escape from Valentin's clutches. Francois then retreats to his furnished room, reflecting on the events that drove him to murder, including his unromantic sexual affair with Valentin's former stage assistant, Clara, played by the ever-beauteous Arletty(Children of Paradise - Criterion Collection), as he waits for the police to renew their assault on him at daybreak.

Well, in outline, it does sound bleak, doesn't it, and the material is. Yet, such is the magic of Carne's vision, and Gabin's muscular acting, that it is not tedious, though you might expect it would be. Much of the tale is told in flashback, as Carne delivers a film of great lyrical beauty, widely considered a monument to the French between-the-wars film school of "poetic realism," though a lot of it looks more like German Expressionism to me. It gives us a very accurate portrait of working class life as it was lived at the time: Gabin as Francois humorously delivers several lines on the unhealthiness of the various factory environments in which he has worked: he knows very well that they kill their employees. And Gabin was certainly one of the cinema world's greatest working class anti-heroes. He had just played one for Carne in the previous year on Port of Shadows - Criterion Collection, another bleak film, though not quite as bleak as this one that is even more famous than this one, then and now. Who was Gabin, if you don't know? Of real Parisian working class origins, French cinema's precursor to Humphrey Bogart (although Bogart was of more patrician family), Gabin played the quintessential soft-hearted tough guy in many movies, perhaps his best-known today being the series of films made of Simenon's Inspector Maigret books. A stunning film, 93 minutes long, and not a second wasted.

Le Jour se Leve (Daybreak) is one of the classics of French Film, starring the wonderful Jean Gabin as Francois, Arletty as Clara, Jacqueline Laurent as Francoise and the fascinating Jules Berry as Valentin. Le Jour se Leve tells the increasingly desperate story of a young laborer, holed up in his garrett apartment, waiting out the police who want to capture him. His crime? Francois shot a man who brought a gun to his apartment and talked about killing Francois. The movie, told in the still relatively new filmic device of flashbacks, unfolds the story of an uneasy quadrangle and why Francois acted as he did.

Director Marcel Carne uses Jacques Prevert's screenplay to create an atmosphere that is claustrophobic and despairing. As you watch this film, look for these small but telling details: the people who genuinely like Francois, the little photos and postcards tacked up on the walls and furniture in the rooms of Francois, Clara and Francoise, Francois' pride in his bike, the self-contained tidiness of his small room, Bolop the teddy bear, the cool black leather jacket Francois wears, the dogs in Valentin's stage act, the wistful musical theme, the brooch Francoise gives Francois, Arletty's eyes - which reveal more than her words do, and Jules Berry's amazing performance as a self-pitying "man of the world." This is one of the few Gabin films that I've seen so far where he openly wears his heart on his sleeve, declaring his love for his female co-star more than once, in a manner that is genuine and touching.

The film quality of the English subtitled version that I've seen is very dark toned, with scratches and pits and some jumpy cuts. (Perhaps this version offered by Amazon is cleaner). The English translation tells less than half of what the characters are saying, which isn't always a problem but does make some of the key scenes rather confusing. Yet this film, a fine example of the 1930's poetic realism movement, is worth seeing. It's one of the 8 or so GREAT movies that Gabin made during his first decade of making films. Along with Le Jour se Leve, La Grand Illusion, Pepe le Moko, Port of Shadows (Le Quai des Brumes) and La Bete Humaine (the Human Beast) are the 1930s Gabin films most accessible for most Americans.

It begins with an argument behind closed doors, a gun shot, and then a man staggering out, falling down the stairs to his death. Behind the door is Jean Gabin, who now barricades himself in his room to keep the police at bay. We are then shown three flashbacks which explain how he got where he is now. Two of the flashbacks concern women he has loved, the third is about the sleazebucket Valentin (played by Jules Barry) who is also in love with one of them. It's Barry who comes to Gabin's apartment to get Gabin to stay away, and it's Barry who is shot by Gabin. (Barry is reminiscent of Clifton Webb in LAURA - the old lecher in love with a young beauty.) The composition of the film is poetic and beautiful, and the acting is very well done. The initial meeting between Gabin and his love Francoise in her house is exquisitely handled by both. It's a very romantic, stylish movie - a true classic in world cinema.

Released less than three months before Hitler invaded Poland the fil is a real mirror image of the dominant atmosphere in those ages. Le jour se leve is a perfect example of artistic achievement , and the finest representation of Carne's poetic realism . The film is simply the poetic expression of the authentic human experience and one of the highest peaks in Carne's filmography .
You can feel the struggling shadow of destiny surrounding the happiness' dream in every place you could imagine . The black atmosphere of disillusion and hopeless immersed in one the central nerves of the Civilzation is told with such of mesmerizing realism that clearly you will tie next films as Paisa or Roma open city with the social background but very close related in which lack of humanity and reason for living in the middle of the ashes .
A classic!